Manufacture of polychromic surfaces.



.. sign in .of polychromic surfaces, faces having designs or legendsformed amarrar ommen @FREE LEI-INEE, OIF KELSTERBACH, GERMANY,ASSIGNOB., BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, T0 ESTJVIAN KGIDK COMPANY, OFROCHESTER, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION 0F .NEVI YORK.

'IANUFACTURE 0F POLYCHROIVIIC SUB/FACES.

Speccation of Letters Patent.

Patent-.ea oet., e, rem.

Application led February l5, 1909. Serial No. 478,037.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, Dr. ALFRED LEHNER,citizen of Switzerland, residing at Kelsterbachon-the-Main, Germany,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the lllanufa'ctureof Polychromic Surfaces; and I do hereby declare vthe following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the ar't to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

This invention relates to the manufacture that isto say surthereon indifferent colors. Sheets marked with such multicolor designs areemployed for various purposes in the arts. For example they may serve asdecorative veneersy to be applied to different articles of personal wearfor example or they may be made as multicolor1 hatched screens for colorphotography. I-Iitherto no method has been known, whereby transparentmulticolor designs could be produced by taking a surface, a portion. ofwhich was provided withfa deoneI color and coloring the remainingportions of such surface with a solution of another color, without firstprotecting the first portion of the design with a resist.V

This use of resists or stencils, while possible where the masses lofcolor appliedy are large, becomes more diflicult as such masses becomesmaller and finally, when the colors are to be distributed in minutesections or strips, the method of stencils becomes impracticable,sin'cean accurate register or stopping out is impossible. Other methodsof covering the already colored portions with resists are, under suchcircumstances, so tedious that they are too costly to be employed'and itis hence desirable to devise means for avoiding the same. This has beenaccomplished by the present invention which permits the uncoloredportions of a surface already provided partially with a colored designto be colored with a diiierent color, speedily and perfectly and withoutthe employment of resists or stencils.

In the ldra-wings, in which I have illusltrated o'ne method :of carryingout -my invention, Figure l is an enlarged cross-sectional yiew ofaportion of a sheet of material prepared for the formation of apolychrdmi'c screen used in photography; Figs. 2

hering to the same and 3 are plan views of the screen, showing differentstages of making, as hereinafter described; and F ig. 4 is a similarview of the complete screen. v

Mylinvention is based on the following discovery which I have made. If asheet or surface which has been colored in part with a dye or colorsolution, is dried and then immersed in a dye-solution of another colorthe uncolored portion with sufiicient intensity while the alreadycolored portion will not receive any of the color of this dye solution,if the timeofimmersion is sufiiciently short. If, for eX- ample, a sheetof Celluloid is partly dipped into a concentrated red alcoholic dyebath. such as a solution of rhodamin and .then rinsed in water to removeexcess of dye ad and then allowed to dry, a sheet colored intensely redon a portion of its surface is obtained. If thereupon this sheet is'entirely immersed for a few seconds only in a second alcoholic greendye bat-h andl then immediately dipped into water to check the action ofthe latter solution Vat once, the portion of the surface not dyed redwill be found to be colored intensely green while the red has remainedunchanged. Y In dealing with sheets or surfaces of gelatin,-casein, orthe like instead `of alcoholicv dye baths aqueous dye baths are employedand the surface or sheet -is dipped into alcohol or wiped ofi' or freedfrom the excess of dye by pressing an absorbent sheet thereon or suchexcess of color may be removed by suction. In other respects the processis the same asfor the treatment of Celluloid. 'As an lexample ofpractically carrying out this process let 'it be proposed to provide asheet 'or film lof Celluloid with a red background, green transparentletters and blue initials. The desired legend is printed thereon withprinters ink and the sheet is then immersed entirely into a redalcoholic dye bath, such as a solution of rhodamin in alcohol. Therebythe background is dyed red', the letters remaining undyed. After willthereby be colored.

portion of the surface drying, the printers ink of the small letters '1sremoved and the sheet is then dipped forv about two seconds into-aconcentrated alcoholic solution of malachite green and then immediatelyimmersed into water. Thereby the small letters are ldyed green, the redintaglio hatching has tials being protected against the color by` theprinters inlr. .lifter drying, the printers inlr is now removed from theinitials and the sheet is next immersed for about one second into aconcentrated alcoholic'blue dye solution such as spirit blue andimmediately brought into a stream of dowing water. By this treatment theinitials are dyed blue, while the red and green portions of the surfacedo not take any further color. To prevent the baclr of the sheet fromreceiving any color, it may be coated with a resist such as printersinlr..

Another example embodying4 my invention is the preparation ofmulti-color screens for color photography... Tf it be desired to preparea vtwo-color screen, using'celluloid as the screen-sheet, for example, lprint or otherwise produce on such sheet a fine system of parallellines, with printers ink or other resist and then immerse the sheetentirely in an alcoholic color bath whereby only the unprinted portionof the surface, that is, the intervals between the lines, is colored.

After drying the sheet, the printers ink or other resist is removed forexample with oil of vtungentine, thus exposing portion. The sheet isthen immersed into a second alcoholic dye solution of another color fora very short time and then immediately dipped into water, all as in thefirst example, whereby the lines not dyed inthe first step are now dyedwith the second color. A two-color screen is thereby produced.

For producing'three-color screens l combinethe method just describedwith that set forth and claimed in my application, Serial No. 478,036.

ln detail, the manner of proceeding 1s illustrated in the drawings andescribe in the following example, when making a parallel hatchedscreen. A system of fine parallel lines in intaglio is formed on thesurface of a sheet of transparent Celluloid X as in Fig. 1 by placingthe same upon a metallic dye having the requisite hatching formedthereon in relief and pressing the two into intimate contact with eachother and heating the Celluloid or the dye, at the same time. Theintaglio lines thus formed should be so distributed and of such an areaas to take up one-third of the entire surface of the sheet. The reliefportion of the surface so hatched and the bach, if desired, are then.Vcoated with a color or dye resist Y b inlring the same with printers7ink with t e aid of an inlring roller, for example. Thereby the sheetwill take color only on Ithe intaglio hatching. lTt is now im-- mersed,in a blue alcoholic dye or color bath. Thereby the intaglio lines aloneare colored blue, as indicated by a, Fig. 2.

The sheet is removed from the bath after been suciently the undyed v orbothanziana.

colored; the sheet is then washed. and the printers inlr Y is removedtherefrom.. Thereupon a second systemwof parallel intaglio linescrossing the first system is impressed in\the same surface of the sheetin the manner above set forth and the sheet is again inked in as before.lt is now immersed in an alcoholic green dye bath'such as a Solution ofmalachite green. At this point the process difers essentially from theprocess set forth in my aforesaid application in. that, while in thelatten the length of immersion. was of no special importance the elementof time plays an all-important part under this invention., the time ofimmersion being under the same limited to a minimum, depending onthenature the strength of the dye bath, the depth of color of the lines,etc. ln general however the sheet will be left in the bath only a fewseconds. The sheet is allowed to remain in this bath only about threeseconds. 0n withdrawing the saine it. will be found that only theuncolored parts of the intaglio lines, have received the green color, asshown at Z9 Fig. 3, while the parts crossed by the previously coloredblue lines have taken no.- further color. The sheet is then washed anddried as before. Thereupon the printers ink is removed from. the hatchedsurface the ink on the back being allowed to remainand the sheet havingno resisten the hatched surface is dipped into a third bath viz. a redalcoholic dye bath such as a rhodamin solution and allowed to remaintherein only about one second. By this last step the uncolored lastthird of the hatched surface of the sheet is colored intensely red, asindicated at c, Fig. d, the remaining portions of the surface remainingunaffected by said red color. W i

It has been found that, notwithstanding 'the short period during whichthe last two color baths have been allowed to act on the sheet, thecolors taken by the same are of sufficient intensity forthe purposes of'color photography. The sheet is finally pressed. between two fiatsurfaces while" applying heat, whereby the several colored portions arebrought into one plane. A. color screen in which the different colorsare in thecelluloid is thus obtainedn llt will be seen from theforegoing that my invention essentially resides in the fact that theplate or surface after printed or otherwisel marked on a portion of itssurface with a dye or color bath, of one sort, is thereupon, afterdrying, immersed into a color bath or dye of thesame sort but of adifferent color and that thereby the ine' teraction betweenpresistingcolo-rs or fatty colors and aqueous or fat-repelling colors isessentially avoided. v

From the above it will be seen that an important part of my invention ison 'the discovery made by me that if a sheet or all lodged lili havingbeen.

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surface of material used for making polychromic surfaces, such ascelluloid, gelatin, casein or the like, which has been printed orotherwise marked with a design or color comprising a certain vehicle ormenstruum 0r if the said surface after the color has dried thereon bedipped or immersed in a solution 0r bath of another color comprising thesame vehicle or menstruum for a short period of time, the remaininguncolored portion of the surface will be colored with the second colorwhile the already colored portion will not receive such second color,although the said first color portion of the design is not masked orprotected against such action with a resist. I have found that in mostcases such immersion in the second color bath should not exceed a fewseconds, the necessary minimum time depending on the strength'and natureof the dye bath. v

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A process for making multicolored surfaces consisting in dyeingportions of the surface and drying, then allowing a dye in substantiallyt-he same menstruum as that of the rst to act so brieiiy on theuncolored surfaces as to color them only andl not to affect those areaspreviously dyed.

2. A process of forming multicolored 0bjects which consists in coloringa portion of an object'with one color, then lmmersing the object intoy abath of another color comprising substantially .the same menstruum asemployed for applying the first coloi` for a period of time onlysufficient to color the remainder of the surface without affecting thecolor first applied.

3. The process of forming multicolored objects, which consists incoloring a portion of the surface of an object with one color and afterdrying immersing the entire object into a bath of another colorcomprising Lsubstantially the same menstruum as em" ployed for applyingthe rst color for a time just sufficient to color the remainder of thesurface without affecting the color previously applied.

4. The process which consists in applying a color bath to the entiresurface of a dry body, already colored with a color mixture of anothercolor employing substantially the same menstruum as the sald color bathon a portion of its surface -for a, time only sufficient to' color theremainder of the surfflicedand without affecting the color first app e5. The process of coloring sheets, which consists in marking a design onthe surface of such sheets with a resist, immersing the consists inlmmersing a sheet colored on a.

portion of its surface with one color and covered with a resist on aportion only of the remainder of such surface, into a bath of anothercolor but comprising substantially the same menstruum as used inlapplying the first color, for a time only sufficient to color theuncolored exposed portion and witlout affecting the colors previouslyaplie p 7. The process of making color-screens which consists inimmersing a dry color hatched sheet into a bath of another color butcomprising substantially the same menstruum as employed in applying theprecolor the uncolored remainder of the surface of the sheet, andwithout affecting the colors previously applied.. l

8 The process of making color screens which consists in hatching a sheetwith intaglio parallel lines and coating all of the surface thereof withthe exception of the intaglio lines with a resist and then immersing thesheet into'a color bath then drying the sheet and removing the resistand applying to the same another series of intaglio lines, crossing thefirst series and again covering the entire surface, with the exceptionof the intaglio portions, with a resist, and immersing the sheet intoanother color bath for a timeonly suiicient to color the uncoloredexposed intaglio portions,then again drying, then removing the resistfrom the front surface and then immersing the sheet into athird colorbath for a time suiiicient only to color the uncolored portion.

9. The process which consists in coloring a portion of the surface of anobject with one color, then washing with a liquid differing from themenstruum of the color, then vious colors, for a time suiicient only tosubmitting the entire surface of the object to the action of a bath of adifferent color 'comprising substantially the same menstruum as that ofthe first color for a time only sufiicient to dye the uncolored ortionswithout affecting the dye first app ied.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aiiix my signature in the presence oftwo witnesses. DR. ALFRED LEHNER. Witnesses: y

CARL GRUND, JEAN GRUND.

